


Close Calls in the Underground

by tigereyes45



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Close Calls, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-04-04
Packaged: 2021-02-23 04:01:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23005414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tigereyes45/pseuds/tigereyes45
Summary: When they had ventured below, no one had expected so many close calls. Moments, where it looked like Byleth, would fall, or one of their own would be left behind.This is going to be a short multi-chaptered fic during the time through the DLC. It is a result of the many close calls I suffered when playing the DLC.
Relationships: Linhardt von Hevring/My Unit | Byleth, My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 42





	1. Lessons

The dank air grows heavy as Byleth falls back. Her dark green hair flies up covering her pain-stricken eyes. All sound flees from Claude. From the peripheral of his eyes, he could see Dimitri riding towards them. Riding desperately towards her. Steel flashes it’s stained tip past them.

“Professor!” Ashe’s desperate call awake his body. It’s followed by an iron arrow flying right past his face. Close enough to touch his braid but leaves the rest unscathed. As if it was singing a siren song, the arrow bids his arm to follow. Barely in time, he cups a hand under Byleth’s head. His knees hit the cold stone floor as his arms fight to stop her. A clink rings out. Claude knows it was Ashe’s arrow being smacked away. The bleeding from her

Gently Claude rests her down. He unattached his cloak and folds it up under her head. For a moment her eyes narrow in on him. Before they return to their unassuming natural state. She was alive, but that fact did nothing to soothe his raging mind. Throwing a wink to Dimitri, Claude runs ahead. He nocks an arrow aiming towards the purple-haired man’s left leg. The trickster spins on his heel. With practiced ease, he swings his leg out of the way. Claude immediately nocks two more arrows. In quick succession, they cut through the stale air. One plunges into his upper thigh of the right leg. The other wedges itself deep into his shoulder. The man winces as the force pushes him back. Teetering like a toddler he falls back. One hand still clutching the arrow in his shoulder.

Claude whistles to call his wyvern over. Her leathery wings fold in at an awkward angle to accommodate the small space. Lovingly he pets her nose. She purrs pushing her cold nose into his palm. Gesturing down the wyvern snorts understanding. With dagger eyes, she holds her head close to the man’s neck.

Somehow he could still laugh. It coaxes Claude’s rage up again. He pulls his short ax out. The man wrenches the arrow out. “Okay don’t go after the professor. Gotcha.” Claude raises the ax as the man heals his shoulder. Their eyes meet. Recognition swims within the pale purple orbs.

“Baltie!”

Hilda’s voice stills Claude’s hand. Halfway down the ax stops abruptly. Its tip stays pointing towards the man’s heart.

“Hilda?”

Claude looks back to see Lindhardt healing Byleth. Hilda was all but screaming at the Balthus now as the others gather around. Dimitri was carefully holding Byleth up with Claude’s cloak. She leans her head back against his chest. Pain blooms like a sunflower greeting the morning. It wells up over the bruise on his shoulder where he had almost avoided a hit from Balthus earlier. Claude smiles to hide the pain. With open arms, he waves his hands about for show. This had been his fault. The fight began because that man recognized his name. Byleth almost died because of him.

Dimitri helps Byleth stand. Claude pushes through them to clasp his hand around her shoulder. He gives it a soft squeeze and announces, “That was a lesson in bravery for all of us.” She shakes her head. Her cheek barely grazes against his hand. Claude pulls her up further into a deep hug. Burying his head into her shoulder he takes a deep breath. Despite the moldy air of the underground, she smells like the greenery. Traces of noa fruits and forget-me-nots fill his nose. Carefully he mouths ‘I’m sorry’ into her shoulder as his body shakes once. She holds his head and pats his back.

“It’s okay.”

She almost died because of him. Everything was very far from fine.


	2. Forget-Me-Nots

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Linhardt and Byleth play a game of constant cat and mouse with their assailants in the underground as they try to catch up to the rest.

If Linhardt was being honest he hadn't expected to be racing for his life in the secret underground tunnels below the monastery. In fact, if he had known he never would have listened to Hilda and followed their leaders down here. Professor Byleth runs alongside him as they race to get ahead of the monsters. Following the professor, he ducks behind the first gate. Miraculously it slams (almost on his heels) in time to keep the flying beast trapped on the other side. A force pulls on his hand, dragging him a few feet further in. His heart thrums like drums in his head. With a nervous glance, he risks looking away from the beast to look up at what could possibly have hold of him now. It was just the professor, holding his hand tightly

"We need to go."

Linhardt only had enough time to glance around before being lifted up. He manages to stand upright on his feet for a few brief moments. Gravity quickly weighs down on the young mage. It leaves him hunching over to catch his breath. His hands slip against the cloth of his robes on his knees. His sweaty palms unable to really offer him any balance. Byleth rests one hand gently on his shoulder. The other he could see out of the corner of his eye was around the hilt of her silver sword. Even now was not a dire enough time for the Sword of the Creator. Just how easily does that sword break?

"Are you alright?"

That was the most words he had heard her speak in weeks. "Yes professor, of course. I'm used to almost dying by the claws of those creatures, but the air here is stale. It's more difficult to keep up." Finally Linhardt manages to push himself up. With a great heave he stands upright, ready for the next round.

Byleth motions towards another gate to their right. The others were already up ahead clearing the exit. It was just the two of them now. Bitterness fills his stomach. He takes notice of how worn out she looks. It was almost as bad as he feels.

"How courteous of them to leave us behind like this." He wipes his hands off on the sides of his robes and pulls out one of his tomes.

With a curt nod Byleth pushes him ahead. "It was smart."

She pushes him a few steps closer to the gate before raising her sword. Linhardt fights to stay upright. Feeling indignant he almost announces yet another grievance before seeing what exactly the professor had been pushing him away from. His heart that had begun to calm down speeds up again as he watches her push back yet another rogue. A large wolf like monster was quickly rushing it's way through the room.

"Professor!"

"Run!" She orders pushing the rogue off her. He lands steadily and was attacking again as fast as he first had. Holding the tome up Linhardt steadies his hand. He breathes deeply, as if it was the last breath he may ever take. His hand begins to charge up. Lighting crackles through the air from his fingertips as he prepares the spell. The power charges through him from the ground. It leaves his feet tingling almost as violently as his hand is.

As if she could feel the charge in the air, Byleth kicks the rogue away just in time for the spell to miss her completely. The rogue cries out. Linhardt hopes the pain was excruciating as he watches the man writhe on the ground before finally dying. Byleth doesn't waste a moment on the rogue as he dies. Her attention immediately averts itself at the four others leading the monster right to them. As she rushes them he realizes exactly what exactly her plan is.

Professor Byleth was going to hold them off so he could escape. Every inch she puts between herself and him was another their enemies would have to cover before he could get through the gate. Bile builds up in his throat. Who was he to stop her? She was the professor after all, and he didn't want to have to fight in the first place. He just wanted to rest but Hilda and Ashe just had to drag him along. Honestly they left him alone with this madwoman.

He casts one last spell at one of the rogues further from Byleth before running for the gate. Linhardt slams his hand against the wall as he reaches it. The tingling in his hand goes down somewhat. He switches his Thoron tome out for Nosferatu. Byleth was slowly getting overwhelmed. She manages to push the silver sword through one of the rogues chest as another stabs at her legs. They get the back of her thigh. She takes the blow choosing to free her sword before swinging it at them.

"Professor the gate! We have to go now!"

Somehow she nods in as she jumps back from the fight. Spinning in the middle of the jump she throws her back towards the monster. Linhardt watches with baited breath. With a speed that seems almost impossible for a human to achieve she starts to run towards the gate. Every second she runs closer to him. Byleth tucks some hair out of her face with her free hand. She acts as if she was going for a job around the monastery, not running for her life. Of course their enemies were right behind her. She runs like a rabbit from a pack of wolves. Prey just trying to survive.

Blinking, he realizes she was almost to the gate. Hugging the wall he dips behind the line where the gate will fall. His fingers glow purple as Nosferatu fills the empty space on Byleth's right. One of the rogue's cry out. The monster quickly tramples over top of them. For one moment. A single second in this solitary space, it looks like a smile crosses Byleth's face. His chest constricts. As quickly as he had summoned the attack, the purple flames die down, and her smile goes with them.

She was in arm's width of the gate when she slips. Throwing her weight forward Byleth rolls across the line. This gate falls with greater force then the last one. The monster roars furiously before biting down on the final rogue. Linhardt looks away from the gruesome sight just in time to see Byleth struggling to stand back up. He considers offering her a hand. It had been a sudden fall. A shiver crawl down his spine as he feels a warm liquid splash against the side of his arm. Reaching out, Linhardt clears his throat to get her attention.

Without even looking at him, she takes it. Her grip was firm, unyielding as she pulls herself up with it. Her hand was shockingly cold, not nearly as warm as the other one had been earlier. Was it because it was normally her sword hand? Could that really just cause one part of her body's temperature to drop so suddenly?

"Teach! Linhardt! We gotta go. The final gate is about to close." The agitated voice of Claude's reverberates off the walls. He looks over just in time to see the wyvern rider let tighten his grip on his reigns. Watching him fly away Linhardt finally takes notice of all the shouting from the other rooms.

"There's more soldiers still?" His voice cracks as he asks. Embarrassment flushes his cheeks. Byleth gives another quick nod in answer to his question before taking a protective stance. Her back was covered in as much blood as he thought sticks to his side. There was an abnormal amount of blood there actually. Was that why her hand was so cold? Was it not only the blood of their enemies but hers that decorates her back? Before she can argue with him Linhardt touches the heal tome inside his robes and quickly mutters a heal spell. Just in case. They needed her after all. It goes quickly. It wouldn't heal much but it should be enough to stop any serious bleeding. She doesn't even seem to notice, but she stands straighter now. With a sigh he holds his next spell in hand.

When he thought Byleth had been moving quickly in the past room, it was really only a fraction of how fast she could go. With a speed he hadn't even seen a pegasus rider reach, she had already finished a swordsman that had been cornering Edelgard. As he fends off an archer aiming at her back, she relays a plan to the rest. With her back with them, the others act swiftly. Mobilizing in a uniformed fashion they had been missing with her lack of presence.

Dimitri roars as he leads the attack. Before he could even ask what was going on the rest were gone. Up ahead, and out of reach they go. All over again he's left behind constantly dodging, escaping death by the skin of his teeth. As a rogue with an ax closes in, Linhardt stands his grown. Somehow he manages to avoid the ax. Quickly setting the man on fire he moves back again. The man somehow manages to hold his weapon up as he screams out. A well place sword through the side of his throat silences him. Byleth leaves the weapon in him.

With a limp, she walks towards him. Bloody hand outstretched in the direction of the gates. Her eyes dig into him, carving an everlasting memory of this moment into his mind.

"Hurry." She orders, breathless. That's it. The final bit of evidence he needed to prove beyond a doubt that the professor was a madwoman.

Ignoring her order he quickly shoves his Nosferatu tome back into its place inside his robes. Never breaking eye contact he pulls the simple heal out. Grabbing the shoulder of her bleeding arm, Linhardt rolls his eyes. Indifference was the only mask he could use as he takes in the large gash going from her shoulder down across her arm. For some reason she doesn't try to shrug him off. With her sword at the ready in her other hand she looks away, standing steady as he works his magic. The rest could run and follow her orders. There was now way he was going to leave her to fight alone. Especially not when she was in this state.

How much time did they have left? Every second the spell takes steals more from their chance to escape. Why did it feel like this spell was taking so much damn time right now? Closing his eyes Linhardt urges it to go faster. For it to just heal her already! That cut was rather large though. It when pretty far into her skin too. Maybe that’s why it was-

“Linhardt, that’s enough.” Byleth gently brushes his hand off of her. This time she does smile. A true smile. One that reaches her eyes and speaks to a bitterness deep within him. She smiles as if she knows the future, as if there is no way that would be her last time smiling like that, and he hopes she right. Linhardt doesn’t really ever pray to the goddess. If she was going to help them she would’ve by now. Still he finds himself swearing to her deep within himself.

As the professor pushes him towards the final gate towards freedom he makes a promise to himself. To do anything he needed to just to see that smile again. Somehow more enemies flood into the room as they make for the escape. Rounding the last corner Linhardt could see his classmates already in the safe zone. Claude had his arrows at the ready alongside Ashe, as the mages prepared their spells. They were ready to protect them, the two just had to get a little closer. It was simply a test of their speed again their enemies.

Until it wasn’t.

“The gates closing!”

“Teach hurry!”

Linhardt pushes his feet to move faster. They were still several feet away. He grits his teeth and tries to move through the soreness.

“Watch out!” Byleth’s screaming pulls Linhardt’s attention back. His eyes grow painfully wide as fire collides with the professor’s left side. Behind him, a chorus of screams and shouts ring out.

Before he could stop himself Linhardt dives back. Barely catching Byleth before she hits the ground. He digs his fingers under her pits and pulls the professor up. Already hew as reciting the strongest healing spell he knew.

“Lin-linhardt, the g-g-gate.”

“We’ll make it.”

“Yeah,” She wraps her arms around her waist. “Keep them off of us.”

“I’ll do my best.”

With a strength, Linhardt was honestly envious of she lifts him up. He uses one last healing spell on her as she charges for the gate. Keeping one hand on her back, Linhardt channels fire through the other. He would have used Thoron but there was no way Byleth could handle lightning being channeled through her right now. No, simple magic was best. If he was able to burn any of them the way they had hurt her, well that was just a bonus.

His body fights against the polarizing magics. It struggles to keep the spells flowing. Linhardt’s insides feel as if they’re being torn in two as he leans further into Byleth. His concentration breaks as she drops him a little lower into her arms. With his outstretched arm still directing small sparks of flames at their enemies, he’s forced to break the healing magic as he moves his other hand onto the other side of Byleth’s shoulders. She pushes his head into her neck while tucking hers into his own. His nose fills with her scent. With sweat, and dirt, and forget-me-nots she’s always growing. He had expected her to smell sweeter for some reason, though he can’t remember why. Nothing seems more fitting then what mixes in his nose now. What does he smell like to her? Can she scent the pages from his books, the candles he burns in his room to sleep better at night or was it the library, and it’s cobwebs, and ancient texts that fill her nose? Did he smell as good to her as she did to him?

They were in rolling before he even realized they had been in the air. He opens his eyes only to see her dark, leafy hair. Long, wild strands block his vision as they crash into the ground. She presses his head deeper into her neck. The hand he had been healing her with hits stone, elbow first. Effectively protecting her head as much as she had protected his body. He doesn’t want to pull away at first. Unsure if they even made it past the gate or not. If he looked up and they hadn’t then that was it. They would make their final stand in this underground coffin together.

And if they weren’t. He laughs. If they had made it then he was going to enjoy one last moment in her embrace, before the Ashen Wolves had them moving again. Running for their lives the way they had been every second since they came underground.

“Are you alright?”

Linhardt slowly drags his head out of the crook of Byleth’s neck. Edelgard was standing at their feet, watching him with an apprehensive look. Hapi stood next to her waiting for a sign that her healing was needed.

“Yes.”

They had made it. He knew the professor was auspicious but truly this luck of hers was greater than just success. It was uncanny, really.

“Great then we can move on for the chalice.”

Linhardt nods and rolls out of Byleth’s hold. He wasn’t surprised by Yuri’s words, though he wishes he was. Whatever this chalice was worth it definitely wasn’t the price of their lives. He straightens his robes, watching Claude and Yuri helping Byleth up from the ground. The scent of forget-me-nots clings to his nose.


End file.
